Three-Legged Race

plumber around here.'

Amy walked through the doorway into her room. The blood cart rumbled in behind her, the glass test tubes clinking against each other.

Amy's room was filled with plants. They hung in pots by the window. They stood on stands by the sink. The room was a jungle. Asparagas ferns festooned, begonias tumbled, philodendrons sprouted everywhere.

'I always love coming to your room, Amy,' the blood lady remarked. 'It's like a florist's shop. You certainly have a green thumb. Every single one seems to have grown since you've been here.'

'I love plants,' Amy said. 'I've got a greenhouse at home. You have to talk sweetly to them. Taking care of them here gives me something to do.'

'Well, they certainly are beautiful. It brightens up these blank white walls so. Anything green I touch dies immediately. I envy you.'

'That's because you have a red thumb,' Amy said with a laugh.

Amy lay down on her bed. The nurse took her left arm and wrapped the rubber tube around it, just above the elbow. Amy clenched her fist and saw the veins tracing like rivers down her arm.

The nurse swabbed Amy's forearm with alcohol and sank the needle into the skin. Amy always watched. Each day her eyes would be drawn to look and see the dark red fluid slowly fill the cavity of the syringe.

The nurse removed the hypodermic, capped it, placed a cotton ball on the small hole in Amy's arm and unwrapped the rubber hose.

'Thanks a lot,' the nurse said. 'I'll be by again tomorrow.'

'Thanks. I'll mark it on my calendar. I wouldn't miss your visits for the world. See you later.'

''Bye now. Take care.'

The nurse wheeled her cart out of the door and disappeared down the hall in a soft tinkling sound of clinking test tubes. It sounded like wind chimes.

Amy climbed out of bed and crossed the hall to Brent and Kirk's room. They were in their beds, Kirk drinking the Coke that Jewel had delivered.

'Hi,' Amy said. 'I thought I'd check in before my morning nap to see how you were coming along, Brent.'

'Pretty good, thanks,' Brent said. 'I finally got another pain shot from Nurse Rush a few minutes ago and I feel a lot better.'

Amy smiled at him and he tried to smile back. Brent liked her smile. It was so open and friendly.

Amy patted his leg beneath the white sheet. 'Good, I'm glad you're feeling better. Kirk treating you all right? He's kind of a bear, you know. You just can't take him seriously is all.'

'A bear, huh?' Kirk said. 'I'd love to catch you bare.'

Amy laughed and her brown hair swung around her head. 'You just try,' she said. 'I'm still faster than you are on crutches, you dirty old man. See what I mean, Brent? He's all talk and no action. Underneath that tough shell, there beats the heart of a lamb. Or a black sheep, anyway.'

It sounds so easy, Brent thought. You just say funny things and you're friends and they make it look so easy.

As if she understood, Amy said, 'Soon as that pain gets better, Brent, we'll have you joking away with the best of us. Just remember, none of us is going anywhere for a while. We're all good friends here.'

'Except Nurse Rush,' Kirk said.

'Except Nurse Rush,' Amy said. 'Hey, good news, you guys. Speaking of nurses, the blood lady was just by for the day, and despite rumors to the contrary, I do have a little blood still left in me. My heart still beats. What do you think of that?'

'Congratulations,' Kirk said. 'You're still among the living. I wish I qualified.'

'Every day I'm surprised there's any blood left. And after that bleeding I had before I came in here, I figured I must be about empty.'

'What happened?' Brent asked.

'Oh, that's why I'm in the hospital, Brent. I had this sudden bleeding thing. So they brought me in here and gave me a transfusion a few weeks ago and I've felt much better since, most of the time anyway.

'I tell you, Brent, it was my own dumb fault. I got myself so tired out this spring it's no wonder I developed mono or whatever it is. I was playing the part of the daughter in The Glass Menagerie at school. It was rehearsals every night and then staying up even later to get my homework done. I was getting more and more wiped out by the whole grueling schedule, but I loved that part and wasn't about to give it up. I was too involved in the play to worry about how I felt. Now I spend my time trying not to worry.

'My mother was really on my back about taking it easy. I must have looked like I'd been dragged through the mud. I had circles under my eyes that reached all the way down to my chin.

'I promised my mother I'd take it easy after the show went on, and even agreed to go have a checkup, but I never quite made it that far.

'The play was great and then I went to the cast party, which was a stupid thing to do. I should have been home in bed, I guess, when you figure how tired I really was. So I had a couple of beers at the cast party and that made me even more exhausted.

'Well, I collapsed, I guess. Dropped right over. Everyone thought I was loaded of course, because a few others were. So may parents were called and they came to pick me up. I tried to tell them that I was just exhausted, but they thought I was loaded too, which is kind of funny now that I look back on it.

'My mother said that she couldn't believe her eyes. I'd promised not to go the party and I was just too tired to explain.

'I felt really lousy by the time we got home. Then the hemorrhaging started. So they rushed me over here. I've had tests and more tests, and a couple transfusions. That blood lady takes more samples of blood every day. But it's good to have the rest, and I'm feeling much better now, I guess. I'll never get myself hooked into a schedule like that again. I've just got to say no to some of the things I'd like to do. That's my problem. I end up involved in everything going except getting sleep. Anyway, it's fun while it's on. Well, I've talked your ears off long enough, Brent. It looks like we both can use some rest, and I'd hate to miss my regular daily-type nap before lunch. Doctor's orders, you know. I just wanted to see how you were feeling. You look better already.'

'Thanks, Amy. I really appreciate it. I'll see you later. If you want some extra blood, just let me know. I've got plenty.'

'How can one girl be so lucky?' she said. 'Here I am confined with two such gorgeous men, and not a chance of escape. See you both later.'

She turned and left the room.

That wasn't so hard, Brent thought. Amy and Kirk make it so easy for me. He felt better than he had all day.

Chapter Four

The three were playing poker again. Brent was feeling better. Most of the pain was gone and he was finally off the intravenous tube. It was the end of his first week in the hospital. He was lying on his side in bed holding his cards. Kirk was sitting in his wheelchair pulled up close. Amy was sitting cross-legged on the foot of Brent's bed.

Brent liked having them there. He felt close to both of them, closer maybe than to any of his friends at home.

He liked Amy and Kirk. They made him feel special. They were fun, and already he felt relaxed about joking and laughing with them. Maybe it's the closed world of the hospital, he thought, but it seems so natural now. I say something and they laugh. They say something and I laugh. What could be easier, or more special?

Amy laid her cards out flat on the bedside table.

'Two pair,' she said.

She pulled the Kleenexes from the center of the table into her growing pile. Each Kleenex was worth a